<![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, george michael]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, george michael]]> http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/georgemichael http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/georgemichael <![CDATA[When It Comes to Bathroom Arrests, George Michael Is No One-Hit Wonder]]> Recently, things had been looking up for singer George Michael: not only had he embarked on his first world tour in years, but his music received another moment in the cultural spotlight thanks to the whimsical ABC series Eli Stone. (Here at Defamer, though, we'll maintain that his most triumphant turn of late was leading the insurrection against a held-hostage Dr. Phil at the Forum in June). Alas, all good things must come to and end, and for Michael, that fluorescent-lit endpoint was once again found in a public men's room:

George Michael was arrested in London Friday after being discovered with what police term say were Class A and a Class C drugs, according to reports Sunday.

The singer, 45, was cautioned and has not been charged.

A Scotland Yard press spokesman says, "A 45-year-old man male was arrested on Sept. 19 in the Hampstead Heath area on suspicion of the possession of drugs."

...While the spokesman also would not identify the type of drugs, reports have said that they included crack cocaine, which is termed a Class A drug in the U.K.

The reports say that Michael, who lives nearby with his long-term partner Kenny Goss, was arrested at an underground public men's room.

This is not the singer's first Hampstead Heath embarassment — in 2006, he was caught cruising the park for an after-hours father figure. Perhaps Michael could benefit from adding a new location to his bag of tricks? (No, not that kind of "tricks.") We hear David Duchovny has a great Arizona vacation home...

[Photo Credit: AP]

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<![CDATA[We Reveal 'The Curious World' Of Celebrity Drug Users So You So You Don't Have To Buy The Book]]> A new book claiming to unveil "fun, fascinating facts" about celebrities and their drug habits may just be a collection of ancient quotes and anecdotes. As the NY Post reports today, The Curious World Of Drugs And Their Friends promises sordid tales involving Lindsay Lohan and details from her substance-fueled evenings before cokepants and trees put them on the back burner, but the story they cite from a "friend" sounds eerily familiar to one of our favorite classic Lohanisms from over a year ago. And the celebrities quoted as being "unable to talk to anyone without a nose full of cocaine," and having "spent the first 35 years of my life in a fog" due to drugs have either kicked their habits long ago or already (endlessly) confirmed to the world that they were once big league nose candy fans. The stars "featured," and exactly how dusty these quips are, after the jump.

The story involving Lohan is hardly new, and appears to be taken directly from last year's suspect News Of The World feature in which one of Lohan's cohorts turned over a tape allegedly showing Lohan snorting lines at Teddy's. The item, accompanied by grainy stills from the tape which have yet to convince us Lindsay's the girl peer pressuring everyone around her into joint key bumps, did provide a classic Lindsay quote: "I'm going to New York tomorrow to fuck Jude Law!" Funny. And sad, because of just how funny that objective would be today. As for the other excerpts, Johnny Depp is the actor who said he'd spent most of his life in a fog, but his comments on cocaine and all the "teeth-grinding" that came with it were made in retrospect during a 2001 interview with The Guardian. The star who relied on the drug socially? Shockingly (!), Elton John. Who provided the book's quote to the LAT back in 1992. And guess what? Robin Williams, believe it or not, was once fond of the same drug! Too bad that news is so old Williams was still using the memory of it to plug movies to People in 1988.

The book's authors also promise revelations from the secretly drug-filled lives of Whitney Houston, Courtney Love, Amy Winehouse, and George Michael. But rather than sit around in heated anticipation of the day you can waste $28.95 on the hardcover, we'll give you the Cliff's Notes:
Whitney Houston: "Crack is whack."
Amy Winehouse: "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no."
George Michael: "Why can't I set my monkey free?"
Courtney Love: "im sur ei am quite Nuerotic."
[Photo credits: Wireimage]

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<![CDATA[Heckling George Michael Treats Dr. Phil For Depression]]> We had third-row seats to see George Michael last night at The Forum, but we sold them off at the last minute when we heard he was mixing his old withering, little-known heckling act into the greatest-hits mix. The revelation instantly piqued our sympathy for the uninformed who couldn't possibly anticipate what was about to hit them — folks like Dr. Phil McGraw, for example, whom a tipster tells us got the very worst of the vocalist's assailments:

He was amazing. And his voice has gotten even better. Best moment was when he pointed out Dr. Phil sitting in the audience and tore him a new A-hole for sitting there lifeless. The crowd booed Phil. George said to him.. it looks like you have a problem.. maybe you should see someone about that.

The story is corroborated in another rave review published this morning, with Michael reportedly adding, "In the sea of smiling faces, he's looked miserable for the last hour," as the video screens displayed Dr. Phil and his wife. It's such a shame; Michael couldn't possibly expect his more casual listeners to know the insult-comedy provenance of the name Wham! (or that Andrew Ridgeley's superior takedowns accelerated the duo's split), and at the end of it all, McGraw didn't even have a down-home, drawling comeback. Really, we're kind of glad we skipped out.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

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<![CDATA[Vh1 Goes To The Has-Been Well Once Again For Upcoming 'Heartthrobs' Show]]>

There is no point fighting it anymore. Vh1 will continue to produce shows featuring has-been stars from our youth and, like moths to the TV screen, we'll watch them cry, urinate on themselves and make out in hot tubs until the end of time. Their newest idea will feature (shocker!) Vh1 reality vet Scott Baio mentoring eight “male teen idols” of the 80s in an effort to jump-start a comeback. Since the sad little group has yet to be revealed, we went ahead and picked two former crushworthy picks we’d most like to see week after week, and the two who might force us to cancel our cable package altogether:

Squeal-Worthy:
Kirk Cameron: Yes, he's some kind of born-again family man whose intense dedication to JC scares us more than a little, but with former womanizer Scott at the helm, we think he could convert back to ladies' man after seeing a stripper for the first time in ten (fifteen? twenty?) years.
Fred Savage: We will never, ever get over our crush on Kevin from The Wonder Years. We don't care what he's turned into, but those dimples will always make us weak in the knees.

Do Not Want:
George Michael: While it might be interesting to mix in an openly gay star into the mix of what's sure to be a heterofest, the last thing anyone needs is to see is George and Scott Baio in a painful re-enactment of the former's bathroom misadventures.
Ricky Schroeder: Kid is doing just fine. With guest spots on 24 and Scrubs under his belt, we don't think he's as desperate as the rest. Plus he already came back on NYPD Blue and had his chance. Aside from all that, he never quite made our heart "throb" in the first place.

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<![CDATA[Short Ends: Cross Vs. Belushi: Perhaps Even Better Than Roos Vs. Clowns]]>

· By now you may have already seen this video of David Cross showing his appreciation of Jim Belushi's "music" by hopping on stage during one of his "concerts." If so, watch it again. It really rewards a second viewing. If this is the first time, cherish this special moment. [via GoldenFiddle]
· OK, George Michael, you're on notice: Pass out in your car with some drugs just one more time and we're going to start saying you might have a problem.
Page-pampering Florida Congressman Mark Foley (no, not the Focus Features guy, how many times do we have to correct you on that?) checked into rehab today, possibly in Clearwater, which set off Wonkette's Scientology alarms. We're just going to assume that his possible ties to the Church are merely related to pandering to a large South Floridian constituency, and that he's not currently trying to sweat out his pedophilia in a Hubbardian sauna.
As Copyranter points out in regards to an ad featuring an image of ET's Mary Hart, there's a fine line between photo "retouching" and the "the wholesale erasure of twenty years of aging."
After removing the twenty-pound false stomach she wore for all nine (or was it ten?) months of her fake pregnancy, Katie Holmes now seems skinnier. A real headscratcher, that.

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<![CDATA[George Michael Finds Father Figure In London Park]]> george-michael-park - DefamerBritish tabloid News of the World just happened to be milling about a London park known for being a popular gay cruising spot (hey, even British tabloids have needs), when who should emerge from the bushes at 3 a.m. but a "wild-eyed and trembling" George Michael, who threatened to sue as he quickly peeled off in his car. He was followed soon thereafter by a tubby, 58-year-old man named Norman Kirtland, who was more than willing to describe in full detail their night of anonymous, public passion:

Looking gross and dishevelled, Kirtland answered the door naked — pulling on grimy shorts as he invited us in.

He told us: "I don't even like George Michael. And I didn't recognise him immediately. [...]

"He told me I could contact him on the Gaydar website and we just started kissing.

"He did it very well. That was one of his major points. Then it was fondling and mutual pleasuring. It wasn't full sex but it was fantastic."

Kirtland's confession then took a bizarre twist as he bragged: "There's a secret that I have which no one knows about. It's a personal thing.

"Most people pull away from it. But George actually seemed to respond.

We'll leave any postulation as to the exact nature of Kirtland's "personal secret" up to your undoubtedly fertile imaginations, though perhaps the News' ominous sidebar, "CHECK OUT OUR SEX SHAME SLIDESHOW HERE," can provide some helpful visual clues regarding that matter. Michael, meanwhile, appears to have hit a new low with his latest tryst: While we can understand how the discovery of new sex partners in the pitch dark of a park at 3 a.m. is never less than exciting, perhaps the aging mess might want to explore the more traditional, famous-horny-gay-person route of ordering hustlers to his home the next time he feels a hankering for some completely new penis.

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